A Matter of Degree: California Spending on Prisons and Higher Education

LIVE from the Los Angeles Music Center: California’s public universities and colleges got a bump in funding this year, but so did the state’s prisons. In fact, the percentage of the state budget dedicated to higher education has declined over the past four decades, while the share going toward incarceration has reached an all-time high. Simultaneously, demand for post-secondary education has skyrocketed, and the prison population, at least in the last few years, has plummeted.

Why has California invested so heavily in incarceration while divesting from higher education? To answer this question, veteran reporter Kim Baldonado ’87 moderates the discussion with expert panelists Robert Birgeneau, Chancellor Emeritus, UC Berkeley; Carol Liu ’63, C.EAS ’82, former California state senator; and Steven Raphael Ph.D. ’96, professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. Our panel will spend 60 minutes in discussion, followed by 20 minutes of Q&A.